The Advanced Training Workshop will take place on Wednesday, April 5, from 8:00 AM to 5:45 PM. Attendees will be provided with all eight presentations the day of the workshop.

The workshop registration fee is $599 and can be purchased together or separately from the main conference registration. Discounted pricing available through November 30 ($299) and January 31, 2017 ($499).

I was one of your attendees last year and provided feedback about incorporating workshops into the conference. It’s a great idea and allows your attendees the opportunity to dive deeper into issues that a 70 minute seminar couldn’t give. I love that you guys listened to that feedback.

Stephanie Ricks

Full-day Advanced Training Workshop Schedule

7:00-8:00 AM

Breakfast

8:00-10:00 AM

Presented By:

Denise Kadilak

Maximize Content Reuse with MadCap Flare

In this workshop we’ll take a deep-dive into two advanced MadCap Flare features - Global Project Linking and Run-time merge - and show you how to maximize content reuse with each. We’ll first take a look at both features, what they do, and how they differ. We’ll then turn our focus to the reuse process that allows us to import content and project files contained in one Flare project into another project, as well as merge content housed in several Flare projects into one output file.

8:00-10:00 AM

Presented By:

Daniel Ferguson

Optimizing the Performance of Your MadCap Flare HTML5 Outputs

In today’s fast-paced world, attention spans and patience levels are minuscule. In technical communication, we rightly place emphasis on quality content, searchability, and findability. But do we stop to think about the network performance of our help sites? Mere seconds can make the difference between someone using your help site or going to someone else’s, between great customer satisfaction and merely good, between your customer getting an answer from help or opening a support ticket. As a MadCap Flare developer, there is a lot that is in your control! In this presentation, we will dive into how to analyze the performance of your Flare HTML5 site, identify the most problematic areas that slow your site’s performance, and walk through some best practices for designing your site for optimal network performance. You’ll walk away with the tools and knowledge you need to design a site that zings through the internet with far less drag.

In this workshop designed for advanced CSS users, we’ll provide some high-level CSS instruction, but attendees are expected to have a firm grasp of CSS 2.1 fundamentals. The workshop will demonstrate several recurring problems found in HTML and present better solutions to overcoming them, such as using counters to auto-number, transitioning HTML elements from one state to another, using intrinsic content size to fix layout issues, easily minimizing code duplication, and more.

10:15 AM-12:15 PM

Presented By:

Neil Perlin

Consistency is Key: How MadCap Flare Provides It for Multi-Project, Multi-Author, and Multi-Output Environments

In this session, we’ll discuss the common problems of consistency in multi-project, multi-author, multi-output environments and how MadCap Flare helps authors solve these issues. Join Neil Perlin in a discussion that covers creating custom topic templates, sharing content and control files across multiple projects, creating custom wording using variables and more - all under the theme of consistency.

12:15-1:30 PM

Lunch

1:30-3:30 PM

Presented By:

Scott DeLoach, Mike Hamilton

MAD for MadCap Flare Certification Bootcamp, Part 1

Who should be certified MAD for MadCap Flare? YOU! The MadCap Advanced Developer (MAD) Certification Program recognizes and validates your ability to use MadCap Flare. A certification proves to your manager, potential clients, and coworkers that you’re a Flare expert. It’s also required to be included in MadCap Software’s list of recommended consultants. In this workshop, you’ll learn what’s required to be certified MAD for Flare and everything you need to know to pass the exam. We’ll share sample questions, tips for preparing your sample project, and we’ll even give you a chance to take a free sample exam. If you’ve attended a Flare class and have experience using Flare, we’ll give you everything you need to become certified as quickly and efficiently as possible. Workshop Prerequisites: Completion of the MadCap Flare Basic/Intermediate certified training course and/or proficiency using MadCap Flare for a minimum of three months.

1:30-3:30 PM

Presented By:

Daniel Ferguson, Derek Warren

Breaking Free: Using TopNav to Design Outside the Box

TopNav's output gives you a lot of flexibility in how you present your content to your customers. Join veteran MadCap Flare users Daniel Ferguson and Derek Warren to talk about the components of published content, and demonstrate ways you can extend and modify the design of your output. The workshop will include how you can extend the capability of your output using JavaScript and jQuery. We'll expand on how you can use the latest features of CSS 3 to stylize your content, and show you that the possibilities are virtually limitless. In addition, we'll also address some of the limitations you need to be aware of, and address options for overcoming them. This engaging workshop assumes you understand basic Flare use, HTML, and CSS code.

3:30-3:45 PM

Break

3:45-5:45 PM

Presented By:

Scott DeLoach, Mike Hamilton

MAD for MadCap Flare Certification Bootcamp, Part 2

Who should be certified MAD for MadCap Flare? YOU! The MadCap Advanced Developer (MAD) Certification Program recognizes and validates your ability to use MadCap Flare. A certification proves to your manager, potential clients, and coworkers that you’re a Flare expert. It’s also required to be included in MadCap Software’s list of recommended consultants. In this workshop, you’ll learn what’s required to be certified MAD for Flare and everything you need to know to pass the exam. We’ll share sample questions, tips for preparing your sample project, and we’ll even give you a chance to take a free sample exam. If you’ve attended a Flare class and have experience using Flare, we’ll give you everything you need to become certified as quickly and efficiently as possible. Workshop Prerequisites: Completion of the MadCap Flare Basic/Intermediate certified training course and/or proficiency using MadCap Flare for a minimum of three months.

3:45-5:45 PM

Presented By:

Matthew Ellison

Autonumbering – Everything But The Kitchen Sink

MadCap Flare has a powerful autonumbering capability that, due to its flexibility and complexity, is often not fully understood and is consequently under-used. You can, of course, use it to add legal style numbering to your headings for PDF documents – but did you know that autonumbering can also be used for numbered lists (giving you full control over the hanging indent and the format of the number) and to add a text prefix to specific paragraphs types such as notes and warnings? This workshop covers autonumbering comprehensively and in detail – from a basic introduction to the available commands in the Auto-Number Format dialog, to advanced techniques for controlling the format and flow of autonumbering.

6:00-7:00 PM

Advanced Workshop Happy Hour

For those lucky enough to attend a full day of advanced workshops, a final happy hour to enjoy food and drink is right outside the workshop, on Abbey Road inside the Hard Rock Hotel.